Brody - Ellie Masters Page 0,70

I want doesn’t end with a kiss. If you’re not ready to feel me sliding inside of you, either walk away or kiss me now.”

“Kissing generally leads to the sliding in and out kind of thing.”

“I’m not against that.”

“What about your family?”

“Why do you think I brought you out here?”

“I don’t think I’m ready for that.”

“The kissing or sliding in and out thing?”

I blow out a breath and lean against him, enjoying the way his arms slide around me and hold me up.

“The you and me thing.” I look up at him. “I’m not interested in a one-night stand. If that’s all this is, we should probably stop right now.”

“Is that what you think this is?”

“Isn’t it?”

“Not for me.”

“I hear the words, but…” My blood heats where he touches me. Tremors of sensation spread from there.

“I get it. Words are only so good, but that’s okay. I have all the time in the world to show you I mean what I say.” His grip on my waist tightens.

All the time?

I gaze into his arresting face and tumble into the powerful glint in his eyes. If I let myself fall too far, serious ruin will be my fate. I thought I could work Brody out of my system if I slept with him. Now I know that will only make things worse. We’ve only kissed, yet every nerve in my body thrums with need as he leans down to whisper in my ear.

“You’re mine. I don’t think you understand what that means, but I’ll show you.” Strong and powerful, that’s a promise I can’t ignore.

His lips wrap around my earlobe, and he sucks it into his mouth. Hot, wet, and devastating, my toes curl, and heat licks between my legs where it settles into a needy, insistent throbbing. He lifts one hand to tangle in my hair, twisting, pulling, fingers pressing against my scalp.

When did the trembling start?

It’s hard to say, except his lips abandon my ear and kiss and suckle their way down the curve of my neck. His expert tongue licks a torturous path while I burn beneath the quickening of his exhales. I’m right there with him, breathless and on my way to losing control of any higher brain functions I might have once possessed.

Another moan escapes my lips as he licks and nuzzles my collarbone. They’re just lips, yet I feel ravished in the best possible way.

“Brody…” I don’t know what it is I mean to say, whether to encourage or discourage, except this isn’t something I want to stop. As his lips drag against my skin, he groans against me, building desire and dragging me toward a breathless surrender. He reaches the tip of my shoulder and pauses. Brody’s body stills as he simply breathes. How wrong would it be to give in to this carnal craving he draws from my body?

Don’t answer that.

If I give in, if I fall, I know what waits for me at the bottom of that maddening plunge. Pleasure might surge through me for a blissful moment, but that fall will break me. Every skilled touch is a reminder of what happened the last time I gave in to what he wanted.

Those memories don’t match the skillful adoration he showers upon me now, but that pain lingers in the corners of my mind. I wish I could take a chance, fall over the edge and plunge into the maddening abyss of pleasure he promises, but I uncover a last-ditch reservoir of strength and pull back.

“I can’t do this.”

He regards me with that sweeping gaze of his. Too easily, I forget the impressive figure he cuts. His hawkish glare cuts into me, measuring and assessing as his lips tense and draw tight together.

“Perhaps not today, then, but I’m not going anywhere.” The heat of his passion rushes through me as those smoldering green eyes of his capture me and bind me.

I accomplish the nearly impossible feat of drawing air into my lungs as my head spins with the promise those words create.

“Why?”

“Why, what?”

“Why now?” Tears swarm in my eyes, and I fight back the hot pinpricks, daring them to fall and betray me to this uncompromising man.

“Because I’m not a self-centered asshole anymore. I walked away because it was easy. I stayed away because that was easy too. I convinced myself it was better for us both, when it was simply easier on me. After so many years, I figured you moved on.” He leans his head against the trunk of the